Shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, TN … One Dead ... Say a prayer for the victims and the families of those lost and injured.

One person is dead and eight others wounded Sunday after a masked man opened fire following a church servicein Antioch, Tennessee at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ. As church let out at approximately 11:30 am Sunday, a gunman killed one female in the parking lot and then proceeded to enter the church from the rear and opened fire. The woman killed has been identified as Melanie Smith, 39. Smith was a mother of two who lived in Smyrna. One church member, 22 year-old Caleb Engle, is reported to have confronted the shooter before being pistol whipped in the face. Engle then went to his car to retrieve a gun, which he has under a concealed carry license.

Please say a prayer for the victims. As it turns out it appears that I am friends and acquaintances with individuals who personally know some of the victims involved in this church shooting, including minister Joey Spann and his wife, Peggy. Get well, may the Lord be with you and God bless.

Police say the gunman wore a neoprene ski mask when he shot and killed Smith in the parking lot of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, as the service ended shortly after 11 a.m.

With his blue Nissan Xterra still running, the gunman then entered the rear sanctuary doors of the church and began “indiscriminately” shooting, police said.

Among those shot were three men and three women, police spokesman Don Aaron said.

The church’s minister Joey Spann, 60, and his wife, Peggy, 65, were both injured in the shooting, said Nashville Christian School in a statement on Facebook. Spann is a Bible teacher and a high school and middle school basketball coach.

UPDATE I: Nashville Police have identified the suspect of a mass shooting at a church Sunday morning as 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson, an African American who immigrated from Sudan. So will this be charged as a hate crime?

Samson is being charged with murder and multiple counts of attempted murder in the attack that killed one and left at least seven other people injured at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, a town just south of Nashville, Tenn.

Samson is a bodybuilder who attended high school in Tennessee and is originally from Karthoum, Sudan, according screenshots of the suspect’s Facebook page obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation before the account was taken down. Police say he is a legal resident and came to the U.S. in the 1990s.

“Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa, B” Samson wrote in his final post, around 11 a.m. CDT.
Emanuel K. Samson facebook page (Screenshot/Facebook)

Police Identify Suspect, Victims In Church Shooting

UPDATE II: Victims ID’d and taken to area hospitals:

In addition to the Spanns, police identified the victims as William Jhaenkins, 83, Marlene Jenkins, 84, Linda Busch, 68, Katherine Dickerson, 64 and Engle, 22. Police identified one of the victims as David Spann — his colleague Mike McPherson confirmed tt Spann’s full name is David Joseph Spann.

One woman was killed and seven other people were hurt after a suspect identified as a Sudanese immigrant opened fire at a Tennessee church Sunday, police said, as the FBI confirmed it’s launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

The suspect, 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson, immigrated from Sudan two decades ago, police said. He’s suspected of bringing at least two pistols and a mask to the predominantly white Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, southeast of Nashville, before

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department tweeted that Samson had been released from the hospital and will be charged with murder and attempted murder.

“The Memphis FBI Field Office’s Nashville Resident Agency, the Civil Rights Division, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee have opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tennessee. The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence,” FBI Memphis told Fox News.

If in fact the shooter was a body builder, the police need to investigate the possibility that he was using steroids. This appears to be driven by “Roid Rage”. His message indicates that something was terribly wrong with his thinking.

All states should follow the second amendment to the constitution by allowing people with concealed carry permits to carry in all places. It would not have stopped the parking lot shooting, but it would have saved the wounding of people inside the church.